Category: Winter Jam

Thank you to our amazing creative team of volunteers, advocates and supporters!

You are amazing. Seriously. We can’t thank you enough.

At Winter Jam this year, nearly 6,000 concertgoers felt moved to sponsor a child through Holt — a feat that simply would not have been possible without your heart, your energy and your dedication as a Holt volunteer. Continue reading “Thank You Holt Volunteers!”

Holt adoptive mom Angie Lewis shares why she and her family volunteer every year to help sign up new child sponsors at Winter Jam and other Holt events.

Nicole volunteering at a sponsorship table during Winter Jam!

In January 2012, my husband and our three oldest children attended Winter Jam in Atlanta. They all came home that night so excited about the concert. My husband handed me a picture of a child whose packet he picked up that night to sponsor. And he said to me that the difference with these children is that while some of them live with their birth families, some of them are waiting to be adopted. My heart melted at that moment because God had been moving me towards adoption. The next morning, I started researching Holt International, and within a few weeks, God also moved on my husband’s heart. By March, we started the adoption process for our daughter Nicole.

After our daughter came home, we began serving as Holt volunteers at Winter Jam and during Christian artist group NewSong’s Very Merry Christmas tour. These events have always been a great way for our family to enjoy great music while advocating for orphaned and vulnerable children by helping to sign up new child sponsors. We enjoy the chance to try to make a difference for kids and families. Continue reading “Why One Adoptive Mom Volunteers at Winter Jam”

The following is intended as a resource for Holt music artists as they advocate to find sponsors for the orphaned and vulnerable children we serve. But if you are not a Holt artist, we still invite you to be a sponsorship advocate! Below you’ll find examples of the types of content you can post to social media to invite your friends to sponsor a child through Holt! Thank you for partnering with us on behalf of these children. You can learn more about sponsorship here.

Week 1: Intro Post

Facebook:

Who will answer the call to “help orphans and widows in their distress”? (James 1:27). Through Holt International’s child sponsorship program you can change a child’s life! Learn more here: www.holtinternational.org/sponsorship

Twitter:

Through Holt International’s child sponsorship program you can change a child’s life forever! http://bit.ly/1J45ykl

Week 2:

Facebook:

With the help of Holt International child sponsors, these children were able to join loving, permanent families through international adoption! Read letters of gratitude from their adoptive families and consider sponsoring a child today! https://holtinternational.org/blog/2015/03/17142/

Twitter:

With the help of Holt International child sponsors, these children were able to join loving families in the United States. http://bit.ly/1HcYEcr

Week 3:

Facebook:

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” — John 14:18. Have you heard about Holt International’s child sponsorship program? For $30 a month, you can change a child’s life! www.holtinternational.org/sponsorship

Twitter:

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18. Sponsor a child through Holt International today! http://bit.ly/1J45ykl

Week 4:

Facebook: This is Amen. He lives in Ethiopia and his mother struggles to provide him with his basic needs and educational materials. Would you consider supporting Amen or another child through Holt International’s child sponsorship program? To learn more about little Amen, click here: http://bit.ly/1DA5HLU

Twitter:

This is Amen. He lives in Ethiopia and needs a child sponsor. Would you consider sponsoring him or a child like him? http://bit.ly/1DA5HLU

Week 5:

Facebook:

These bright and hopeful girls share a message of gratitude to their Holt International child sponsors. They are receiving an education in India thanks to those dedicated sponsors. Listen to their thank you message and sponsor a child today: https://vimeo.com/128903847

Twitter.

These girls from India share a message of gratitude to their child sponsors. Listen to their message and sponsor! http://bit.ly/1JTUBTn

When Holt adoptive mom Angie Ledbetter decided to sign up new sponsors for children as a volunteer at Winter Jam, she knew it would be a wonderful way to honor Judy Young — her family’s adoption social worker and Holt’s Arkansas/Kansas/Missouri branch director who recently passed away. She never expected the beautiful confirmation of her decision that came next.

Our family feels Winter Jam is such an amazing event and is very proud to be a part of the Holt International family that sponsors it. It’s a night spent worshiping the Lord along with ten of the best Christian bands who are sharing the word through music, promoting adoption and getting sponsors for children. We first volunteered at Winter Jam several years ago while we were waiting for our daughter, Lauren, to come home. We were at the point in our adoption where we had all the paperwork finished for the time being and were waiting to be matched with our daughter. Everyone who has adopted knows that is one of the hardest times… to wait. We felt volunteering would be something we could do to feel productive while we were sitting idle in the adoption process.

Angie Ledbetter first volunteered at Winter Jam while waiting to be matched with her daughter, Lauren, from Thailand.I admit, the first time we volunteered, it was partly for selfish reasons. I wanted to have the opportunity to see all the faces of the children who needed sponsors, hoping that somehow I would see my daughter’s face. I suppose I had hoped for some divine intervention, considering I didn’t even know who our daughter would be at the time. I had hoped to see a precious baby girl and just know that she was my daughter. Needless to say, that didn’t happen, but we were able to sign people up to sponsor some of the children who were in need and enjoyed an amazing concert. Continue reading “In Honor of Judy”

What is Winter Jam?

Winter Jam is a 10-band Christian concert tour that hits nearly 60 cities each year. It’s also one of Holt’s biggest opportunities to find and reach new child sponsors — people with a heart for the children Holt serves, willing to give $34 per month to change a child’s life. Holt partners with Christian band NewSong, the band that started Winter Jam in 1995. They traveled with us to India, China and Haiti — spending their days with orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children whose lives have been changed by the generosity of Holt’s sponsors, supporters and adoptive families. Then, seeing the great need for Holt to serve more children, they took to the stage, using their talents to advocate for children. Since our partnership with NewSong and Winter Jam began in 2006, Holt has welcomed nearly 62,000 sponsors into our programs — representing thousands of little lives forever changed. Continue reading “Volunteer for Holt at Winter Jam!”

Holt adoptee Ben Diehl and his dad, Matt, share about their experience volunteering at this year’s Winter Jam concert in Des Moines, Iowa.

As I reflect on my Winter Jam experience from this past January in Des Moines, Iowa, I realize how blessed I was to help Holt International at Winter Jam. In 2003, our family traveled to Pune, India to bring home our adopted 4-and-a-half-year-old son from the BSSK orphanage. Benjamin was a little, smiley boy who enjoyed people. As Benjamin grew older — he is currently 15 years old — his love for Christian music has grown. We have attended many Winter Jams in the past, but this time we wanted to volunteer for Holt. Both Benjamin and I have a passion for encouraging others to take the step to help needy children all over the world. We feel overwhelmed with how God has blessed us and long to be a blessing to others. Winter Jam does an excellent job of letting others know about the needs of the kids that Holt sponsors. As volunteers, we were given ten kids’ folders to hand out to folks who would stand up and plan to make a commitment as a sponsor to that child. It was hard not to have tears in our eyes as we prayed over each child before the concert started. Would the Lord bring them to Iowa? What will become of their lives? I am grateful to the Lord for my son, and I will continue to pray for these kids. Thank you Holt and Winter Jam for allowing me to have a glimpse of what the Lord can do through people who care for the orphans.

When Sunita Schroader came home from India at 3 years old, it quickly became apparent that she was learning challenged. Through hard work and perseverance, however, Sunita successfully overcame the challenges she faced — graduating high school as a member of the Class of 2014. Last year, she was also featured on stage at a Winter Jam concert as a once-Holt sponsored child, now a thriving young woman poised for success.

Sunita as a little girl in Bombay.

She cried the first time she saw us. That day, as a 3-year-old at Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), Holt’s partner organization in Pune, India, she understood enough to know her life was about to change. It was my birthday, and my husband had told someone. So they prepared a card for her to give to me. She was coaxed into handing it to this strange woman with blonde hair, and so began a new life for each of us. We brought her home to join our family — with two bio sons — and a life of love in a modest home in western Kentucky. Continue reading “Special In All The Right Ways”

When Greg Rausch attended a Winter Jam 2014 concert in Cincinnati, he was surprised to see photos of his daughter with members of the Christian band NewSong on wall-length banners plastered around the arena. The photos were taken when NewSong visited his daughter’s care center in India, before she came home to the Rausch family. Below, Greg shares what it was like to see photos of his daughter from before they were a family.

Greg stands in front of the Holt banner with his son at a Winter Jam concert in Ohio. Greg’s daughter, a Holt adoptee from India, is featured on the banner with NewSong band member Matt Butler, which came as a surprise to Greg.

“That kind of looks like your daughter, Mr. Rausch.”

“What?” I asked, perplexed by this random and seemingly nonsensical statement from Daniel, a boy in our youth group. “Where?”